The Emergence Collective has been supporting the power of diverse groups since 2016, and we operate within a wide network of co-conspirators. What unites us is a commitment to creating a world where we all have the freedom to bring our whole selves, with dignity in our work, and the power of aligned community at our backs. Learn more about our co-founders below.
Rebecca Petzel
helps groups (of all shapes and sizes) reach their potential and move strategically, together, towards their vision of change. She's been called a strategist, a facilitator, a design-thinker, an organizational development whiz, and an organizer amongst other things. Her gift is designing and holding space where individuals have full agency and dignity while the collective builds alignment and movement towards truly meaningful action. -> More on LinkedIn How'd she get into this work?
In 2009 Rebecca completed a thesis on the potential of collaborative innovation networks to help unlock collective intelligence and fuel social and environmental progress. Her thesis marked the completion of a unique Swedish masters program teaching leadership through complexity alongside the scientific underpinnings of environmental and social sustainability. She was driven to academia by the challenges she encountered working on place-based, environmental initiatives, specifically the ineffectiveness of our organizational structures and group process skills up against the ever growing complexity of the problems at hand. Since this academic crash-course into the theory and practice of collaboration, she's worked with inspiring organizations and networks across the globe putting this research into action. Past clients include UCSF & the Health eHeart Alliance, the Funder's Committee for Civic Participation, Code for America, the Impact Hub global network of entrepreneurs, New Media Ventures, Levi Strauss & Co., Inatai Foundation amongst others. Through all this she focuses on the critical importance of communities designing solutions to their own challenges in order to create durable change. She draws on theories from both technologists studying collective-intelligence, organizational development gurus studying the future of work, and advocates on the frontlines of change to design participatory processes that are democratic in spirit, agile in practice, locally contextualized, and that just work. She has an M.Sc. from Blekinge Techniska Hogskola, a leading sustainability engineering program in Sweden, a BA in economics and environmental studies from the great University of Wisconsin - Madison. After travels that took her from San Francisco to Montana to Australia and beyond, she's settled with her family in Chicago. |
Brooking Gatewood
helps leaders and groups clarify and enact the change they want - in themselves, their workplace, and our shared world. Her coaching and consulting are rooted in both research and practice experience, and support transformation across levels - from individual and team mindsets and habits, to policy and systemic change. -> More on LinkedIn How'd she get into this work?
Early in her career, Brooking worked in the environmental sustainability movement, with the Natural Capital Institute and as a communications and partnership manager with Global Footprint Network. These jobs exposed her to networks of hundreds of different organizations trying to have a positive impact in the world, and she got hooked on the crucial role of collaborative leadership in organizational, network, and movement effectiveness. She then dove into the theory and practice of systemic change, studying social movements and network theory, organizational and individual psychology, group process facilitation, systems theory, and developmental coaching. She’s also been fortunate to learn from some brilliant senior facilitators, coaches, and process designers at Adaptive Edge, Groupaya, and Ag Innovations. She has designed, managed, and facilitated countless group meetings, retreats, conferences, and training workshops, as well as longer-term coaching and conflict transformation, culture change, strategic planning, and collective action processes. She has worked with leadership teams, organizations, cross-sector alliances and movement networks in health care, natural resource management, environmental and social justice, education, and democracy. Client partners have included universities, movements and initiatives, foundations, state agencies, start-ups, SMEs and NGOs of all sizes. Brooking holds an MA in organizations and management theory from UC Irvine, an MFA in creative writing (poetry) from UM St. Louis, and a BA in environmental studies and anthropology from Dartmouth. Additional training includes somatic and developmental counseling and coaching, facilitation, mediation, and mindfulness. She is part of many collaborative practice communities including UFacilitate, Beloved Economies, Scaling Intimacy, and Illuminate, and runs the BlizWell Arts Salon in her hometown of St. Louis, and coming soon to other cities. |
With our expertise in virtual collaboration,
we work with partners, clients, & networks distributed around the globe.
Contact us to learn more !